A look at different growing methods and varieties enabling you to pick your
own edible fungus at home

The day we moved to Otter Farm it rained solidly. By the time boxes and bags had been dumped and the kettle found, it was dark. There was no chance to go outside. I woke early and headed over the wall to the fields. The land looked vast.

I could make something out half way down the field: I knew what I hoped it was but suspected it might be a few windblown carrier bags.

I took off around the edge of the field, like I was holding on to the side of the pool – it didn't feel right walking through the centre so soon after arriving. The closer I got, the more certain I became: it was a dozen puffball mushrooms. They are mightily impressive up close: 12in (30cm) across, spherical and white, looking very much like a huge over-proved loaf.

Their flavour is gentle, the texture meaty and they are particularly fine fried. Although not uncommon, they're a rare enough sight and I'd learned to be calm when seeing suspected puffballs from a distance since friend and mushroom expert John Wright told me of the time he'd run excitedly into a field and tried to pick up a sleeping white duck.

The puffballs were a little over the top and saggy. I hoofed them about, taking imaginary free kicks, to spread the spores in the hope that there would be more in years to come. Every year since, nothing, not a single puffball has appeared. So much for my free kicks.

I've since discovered that mushrooms are perennial organisms that can live for decades, and that they have two distinct parts. Underground, a web of threadlike hyphae known as mycelium cover an often huge area, absorbing nutrients and acting as the fungi's engine room. Above ground is the visible fruit, its reproductive organs, that I'd hoofed around so enthusiastically. I'm not sure I'd have responded well to that treatment either. But the good news is that as most of their "body" exists underground for years, puffballs could return at any time.

Britain's wet autumns are usually good for mushrooms and a woodland or countryside forage is a fine excuse to walk the dog as the days shorten. If you're new to mushroom hunting, now is the time to sign up for a foray – anywhere from a few hours to a day with a mushroom expert. You'll learn what to look for, where to look for it and, most importantly, what not to touch with a barge pole.

There's no need to learn every mushroom out there. Being very attached to this life, I search only for a few mushroom varieties I know to be unmistakably delicious and safe, rather than try to positively identify every species I find. Most of the time, that means ceps, parasols, the occasional morel (they seem to like the mulch mat in the polytunnel) and, once in a blue moon, a puffball to mock the lack of them in the field.

As with elderflower and blackberries, harvesting wild mushrooms has inspired me to grow my own. It is ridiculously easy and has the reassurance of producing delicious, safe mushrooms that might be tricky to acquire otherwise. There are various methods for growing mushrooms at home, each of which introduces spawn to a growing medium – such as a book, straw or a hardwood log. This encourages mycelium to develop and in turn produce mushrooms. Here are a few techniques I've tried.

On a book

Grain spawn is sprinkled between the soaked pages of a book that's kept warm and moist in a plastic bag. After a few weeks, the white fur of the mycelium begins to cover the book. A couple of days in the fridge shocks the mycelium into production and, within a week, baby mushrooms appear, growing rapidly in stages across the book for picking a few days later.

A book makes a good home for mushrooms

In a bin bag

Replicating the principle but on a larger scale, soaked straw in a bin bag provides a fine growing medium for mycelium to develop and mushrooms to grow through slits. Often produces larger mushrooms than the book method.

Around bushes and trees

We grow Stropharia around the base of a coppiced eucalyptus in the garden and they'll grow well around any tree or bush. The mushrooms will grow on soaked hardwood chips, garden shreddings, clean straw or any combination of these.

Wooden dowels inoculated with spawn are pushed through the mulch into the soil, and mushrooms follow three months or up to a year later, depending on conditions. An under-tree site can remain productive for three years or so, and if you keep remulching they can keep producing indefinitely.

On hardwood logs

This is a fine method for growing shiitake and lion's mane mushrooms especially. A fresh hardwood log is essential to ensure it is free from other fungi. Ideally, it should be around 40cm (15in) long and 10-20cm (4-5in) in diameter, clean and with any side branches removed.

Wooden dowels inoculated with spawn are tapped into holes drilled along each log, which are then wrapped in a plastic bag to retain moisture and put somewhere cool, out of the sun and wind. Mycelium usually develop between six months and a year later. Mushrooms often start to form during a warm patch following cold rain, so once mycelium have formed, it's possible to replicate these conditions by soaking the log in cold water for 48 hours during warm weather.

Once set up, there's little to do other than be patient for a few days or months. Most varieties can be grown indoors in a small space or on a slightly larger scale in the garden – a good supplier will advise you of the best to suit you.

Morels

Mildly flavoured and beautiful, morels are poisonous when raw but perfectly safe when cooked.

Be sure to cook morels, they're poisonous when raw (Alamy)

Lion's mane

A weirdly shaggy, pale mushroom. If Andy Warhol was a mushroom, this would be the one. Delicious.

Bizarre looking, but delicious (Alamy)

Garden giants

With its deep burgundy cap and white stem, garden giants can grow as large as a puffball but are best picked small for eating. They're native to the hardwood forests of the United States and Europe, and easy to grow yourself.

Garden giants are best picked small (Alamy)

Shiitake

Richly flavoured, shiitakes are expensive to buy and usually only available dried. They add depth and character to soups, risottos and stews.